Disadvantages of VOIP
 

I know some VoIP services don't work during power outages and the service provider may not offer backup power. What are other possible disadvantages of VOIP?

One of the problems with using VOIP is that the quality you get is not always satisfactory. VOIP uses packets to transfer voice data to the receiver and there are times when the packets transferred are not exactly the same with the one that was transmitted.

Yea serious attonations take place. It happens many times that the voice transmission is not proper adn the quality is dodgy.

Okay folks, I am living in Ireland and my girlfriend is living and studying in Germany, She has no access to a landline as no public phones receive calls over there, so must ring her mobile, I currently use Skype to ring her for 8cent a min, is there a cheaper or maybe even a free way to make these calls? What VoIP provider offers cheapest rates to German mobiles? Thank you.

Skype has an unlimited calling to Germany for 10 bucks a month... that is pretty damn cheap!

problems with sound quality and reliability

Actually that is not really true anymore. VOIP is quite mature as a technology and your packets get where they are going almost all the time, however sometimes they can be delayed. The key to getting good VOIP quality is to have a excellent connection to the internet.

The disadvantages of VOIP can be annoying, but are relatively limited for the consumer. The main complaints regarding VOIP have to do with providing the level of quality of service that customers are accustomed to with regular telephone technology. The reason for this is multifold. VOIP requires a large amount of data to be compressed and transmitted, then uncompressed and delivered, all in a relatively small amount of time. Problems develop in VOIP conversations when this process takes too long and the callers experience one of two problems; echo or over-talk.





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IP PBX

I'd say the bigger key is having a correctly designed network, with appropriate connection to the internet for your users.

It would be all very well having a gig connection, but if you're doing a few hundred Mbps through, say a 7200 with no QoS enabled, then you're going to get all sorts of jitter going on!

great points.
Also it would be difficult to have VoIP service to areas who have no access to the internet.